Yes you may have heard or even own some of these games, but I'm sure there are many you never heard of. I tried to pick out all the best race games that are not well known to most of us or you may find them just intriguing as I did.

"Zemo: the final frontier. These are the escapades of the inhabitants of Space Station Zemo. Their mission: to boldy blow up where no one has blown up before-- or to get the hell of the station before it explodes..."

Players must move their four pieces to the goal. The die is a regular 6 sided die but the odds are black and the evens are red. If you roll an even number you move one of your pieces forward, if you roll an odd you move a piece back. Lots of chain reactions occur as you cannot occupy the same field so when you land on a space you push pieces forward.

Lambourne Games' simulation of F1 racing with the focus on the team management aspects, while the actual running of each race takes four die rolls per car. There was an expansion around 2001 that included actual teams and drivers, including Michael Schumacher and Ferrari. It did have a realistic feel, in that the rich got richer and the poor got poorer, such that the team selection at the start of the game was the key element in relative success or failure and yes, it was possible for a team to go bankrupt before the end of the season.

The one unique aspect of this F1 game I liked (compared to other better known games such as Speed Circuit and Formula De) is that the tracks came in sections, such that you could put together just about any circuit you wanted without purchasing an additional game or expansion.

I just added this OOP game to the BGG database. The unique aspect of this game, compared to other horse racing sims, is that you actually own a stable of horses, each with a preset value based on their relative abilities, and you can enter them in a series of races, most of them (like real life horse racing) are claiming races where the horse is up for sale. Your score at the end of the game is cash on hand plus the value of the stable. Thus, key strategy decision, do you drop a horse in class, going after the purse, and risk it being claimed? Very unique simulation of horse racing, later there was a much more complex computer game of the same name that included many more features.

This is a rare OOP cycling game that I was pleased to be able to snag a copy of last year. In my view, it's probably the best cycling boardgame/sim out there, with relatively simple mechanics but strategic decisions that are an excellent simulation of the sport. Has both "attack" and "tempo" strategy options, one where the cyclist tries to escape, the second where a couple of cyclists try to lift the pace for an entire group, usually to protect the team leaders. Unlike other cycling games that offer only three to six cyclists per team, this one comes with eight, which is another reason why it's a more realistic simulation. Probably works best with stage races, like the Tour de France, which of course makes playing time an issue.

What about this excellent 'diceless' racing game? OOP for many, many years, but easy enough as a DIY. One of the few abstract games that scales impecably well from 2-4 players. Well worth it for those that like playing multi-player abstract games.